Police: Drunk patient flees in stolen ambulance

Boaz Police say a man injured in a wreck stole an ambulance after being transported to the emergency room.

The initial wreck happened Friday in Sardis. Investigators say the man, 24-year-old Matthew Todd of Boaz, was intoxicated at the time of the crash.

Authorities said Todd
convinced the staff to go outside for a smoke break but ditched the cigarette
and just made a break for it in an ambulance that was already running.

"He
got the ambulance stuck at the end of Bernard Street and after that, he entered
a barn and a connected pasture and tried to saddle two horses," said Boaz
Police Chief Todd Adams.

When that
failed, he stole an SUV and crashed and totaled it. He found a second vehicle, stole
it and drove home.

Boaz Police found the ambulance on Bernard Street in Boaz the next morning.

On Saturday,
Todd returned to the ER for treatment from the wounds he suffered from the
initial crash.

"And
that's when the ER staff and medics called us and said that's the guy that
stole our ambulance," said Adams.

In a statement in regard to possible policy changes, Marshall
Medical Center South said because they didn't believe Todd was a threat to
himself or others, they won't review the procedures.

However, AMED Ambulance Service said they will review their
policies. In a statement, they admitted they never imagined anyone taking off
in one of their ambulances, and they don't plan on it happening again.

Todd is
in the Marshall County Jail on a $7500 bond for his series of get-away
attempts, charged with two counts of auto theft and one count of burglary..

Charges are also pending against him for the initial crash that
put him in the hospital.